last update, December 2013 - next update, February 2014

The Who, What, Where, Website and Wirefor current research, innovation, and creativity in STEM

WHO: is making an impact in STEM?WHAT: innovations are making an impact around the world?WHERE: can I find a STEM focused event?WEBSITE: useful in helping you reach your STEM goalsWIRE: answering your questions related to STEM

WHO

Dr. Bruce Stein - Director, Climate Change Adaptations, National Wildlife Federation - Dr. Stein began his professional career carrying out botanical explorations of the tropical rainforests of South America, and has spent more than a quarter century using scientific data and knowledge as a tool for better protecting our most threatened species and ecosystems. Currently Dr. Stein focuses on better understanding the vulnerabilities of our species, ecosystems, and communities to the impacts of climate change, and developing innovative policies and management strategies to address those impacts. See below an great example of his work and the work of his team in restoring the bison to native lands.

Dr. Reagan Flowers - Dr. Flowers is a leading authority on STEM education. She has been a leader in innovation, providing educational access in the critical areas of STEM for nearly two decades. Her efforts recognize that economic development in STEM is the key to future innovations, and her approach provides solutions aimed at securing a bright future for underserved, unempowered and underrepresented children in communities across the United States.

WHAT

Volvo's Solar Powered Pavilion - The collaborative efforts of Fabric Images, Inc. Synthesis Design and Architecture, and Volvo completed fabrication on the first of its kind sustainable energy tensioned fabric architectural display called the PURE Tension Pavilion that powers its V60 Plug-In Diesel vehicle. The purpose - to create a lightweight, rapidly deployable, tension membrane structure that would act as a portable solar charging station for the vehicle. Embedded with Photovoltaic panels, lights would act to power the pavilion and charge the V60 model. As an added benefit it has the ability to break down into a small package for easy transport within the vehicle.

WHERE

2014 Green Schools National Conference - Join leaders from across the country as they share best practices and work to define solutions to address resistance to transforming all schools in to green, healthy, and sustaining learning communities. This year's focus: Working together for healthy, sustainable schools.

Green Jobs - Where jobs and the environment meet - February 10-11 in Washington D.C. - This year's conference is focused on repairing the systems Americans rely on every day, whether getting us back and forth to work, supplying our power, keeping us safe from storms and floods, communicating with police and fire during emergencies, or ensuring the institutions where our children learn are safe and healthy. It's time to repair these systems today to create quality, family-sustaining jobs, to address the threat of climate change, and ensure the health and safety of our workplaces.

WEBSITE

My NASA Data - MND is a tool that allows anyone to make use of satellite data that was previously unavailable. Through MND's Live Access Server (LAS) a multitude of charts, plots and graphs can be generated using a wide variety of constraints. This site provides a large number of lesson plans with a wide variety of topics, all with the student in mind.

NEON's Project BudBurst - This national citizen science program engages the public in the collection of important ecological data based on the timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting of plants. You can lend your voice to a plant so they can share their stories with others.

WIRE

Legos and robotics join forces to produce creative engineering - This year's "challenge" was called "Nature's Fury". Teams had to research natural disasters, come up with an innovative solution that would help keep people safe, prepare a presentation and create a robot capable of landing a cargo plane safely on a runway.